In today's technologically driven environment, people are becoming more and more reliant on devices and equipment that allow access to all types of services, applications, networks, and other capabilities. Technological advances have enabled the ubiquitous deployment of devices amongst consumers of all socio-economic classes. The consumers rely upon these devices for continuous access to television content, broadband connectivity, social media, and communications, to name just a few.
Of course, as with any technology, such hardware devices can and will be subject to periodic malfunctions, faults, errors and failures which can tend to frustrate the user of the hardware device depending upon the frequency of occurrence and/or the severity. In turn, human nature and habit sometimes manifest in the user's action of physically striking, shaking or throwing a malfunctioning device with the desire of correcting the current problem with the device. For example, smaller devices (e.g., handheld) might be shaken vigorously or hit against a more massive object (e.g., a tabletop), while larger devices might be stricken with the user's hand or foot, all in the hope of correcting the device malfunction in an immediate way. In the end, the user is still without knowledge of why or how the problem was corrected or persists. That is, if striking the device corrects the problem, the user has no idea why or how this action was effective in correcting the problem and/or whether the fix is temporary or permanent. Alternatively, if striking the device does not correct the problem, the user still has no idea why or how the device failed and is still left with a failed device on hand.
However, before dismissing the shortcomings of such human behavior it may be worthwhile to leverage this human conditioning effect to identify a way for hardware devices to initiate self-diagnostics to improve their performance and operational sustainability.